Ferland Sinna Mendy was born on 8 June 1995 in Meulan-en-Yvelines, France, of Senegalese and Bissau-Guinean heritage. He overcame a hip operation at fifteen — surgeons told him he might never play again — to come through Le Havre's youth system. Olympique Lyonnais signed him for €5 million in 2017, and Real Madrid brought him to the Bernabéu in June 2019 for an initial €48 million (rising to €53 million with add-ons) at Zinedine Zidane's request.
Mendy has since collected three La Liga titles (2019–20, 2021–22, 2023–24), two UEFA Champions League trophies (2021–22 and 2023–24), and the usual collateral honours of the era — the Copa del Rey, Spanish Supercopas, UEFA Super Cups, and the FIFA Club World Cup. He was a key contributor to the 2021–22 Champions League run, including a 87th-minute goal-line clearance against Manchester City that helped tip the semi-final back in Madrid's favour. The 2025–26 season was a write-off: a rectus femoris tendon injury suffered in April 2025 kept him out until late November, and a fresh tear of the same area against Espanyol in May 2026 — diagnosed as a complete tendon detachment from the bone — required surgery and around a year of rehabilitation.
Mendy made his senior debut for France in November 2018 and was named in the squad for UEFA Euro 2024. A 1.80 m left-back with explosive power, defensive aggression, and underrated technical control, he has been one of the most physically robust profiles in Real Madrid's recent left-back rotation when fit, though the cumulative injury record at the club has tested that durability.